


Not Alone After All

by AlmostSilent



Series: Drabbles of Abandoned Story Ideas (Teen Wolf) [3]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Angst and Feels, Canonical Character Death, Christmas, Claudia Stilinski Feels, Claudia Stilinski Memories, Gen, M/M, Past Character Death, Pre-Slash, but sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-11
Updated: 2014-08-11
Packaged: 2018-02-12 18:10:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2119728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlmostSilent/pseuds/AlmostSilent
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles is used to spending the holidays alone, visiting his mother's grave and letting the grief out. He doesn't expect this Christmas to be any different, but maybe finally he won't have to be so alone.</p><p>Derek and Stiles share in their grief together, silent support and sympathetic understanding.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Alone After All

**Author's Note:**

> This one I started just before Christmas 2013, but I didn't really have the time or inspiration to really get into it the way I wanted to. It was supposed to be more, spanning Christmas and Boxing day and maybe ending in a New Year's kiss.
> 
> (ETA: because of that whole ebooks-tree thing (information can be found [here](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Ebooks_Tree).) this is the official disclaimer that while I don't own the characters, I do own the work and I don't give permission for it to be posted anywhere else without my explicit permission.)

The Stilinski’s had had kind of a Christmas tradition ever since Stiles’ mom died, in that they didn’t really celebrate at all. Stiles wasn’t opposed to some Christmas cheer, but his dad dealt with grief by either drinking too much or throwing himself into work, so Stiles figured he was lucky the Sheriff tended towards the latter these days. Though, it did mean that birthdays, holidays and anniversaries were spent in an empty house, the sense of loss hanging pretty heavily in the air.

On important dates Stiles chose to go down to the cemetery with a large, brightly coloured gerbera daisy and spend some time talking to his mom. It’s not so much that he thinks she’s lingering around her grave, because that would be weird, it’s more like it’s the only place he feels he can talk to her and not look or feel like a crazy person. 

Christmas isn’t an exception to this tradition, so when he wakes up to an empty house -his dad having stayed at the station overnight- he quickly pulls on some warm clothes and gently takes the daisy from the small vase he put it in when he picked it up from the florist the day before. 

The cemetery is always quiet on Christmas Day, most people preferring to spend it with the living and visiting the dead before or after the actual day. It’s only been about a month since he last visited, the day of his eighteenth birthday, so he doesn’t have much news to share. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have anything to say though.

“Hey mom,” he gently lays the daisy down on the bottom of the gravestone, “I know what you’re thinking, the same thing you think every year no doubt, but I don’t mind, honestly. It’s better than the alternative, and I mean, Christmas wouldn’t be the same without you anyway, so there’s not much point is there?”

He doesn’t honestly know who he’s reassuring, his dead mother or himself, but he feels like he needs to say it anyway. It’s not really a lie, but it’s not exactly the truth either.

“I remember that one year when you left dad in charge of wrapping the presents, god they looked truly awful. You couldn’t stop laughing,” he doesn’t bother wiping away the single tear that drips down, he knows before the day is over he’ll have shed a lot more.

He gently traces the letters of his mother’s name on the headstone, thinking about that first Christmas after his mother died. She’d died in the summer, but even in December the Stilinski men were still living in a daze of grief, but still Stiles had somehow half expected to wake up on Christmas morning to find his mother already awake and singing carols as she made breakfast. She was always the first one up on Christmas, even when Stiles woke up before five in the morning to get to his presents earlier. They’d always eat a special breakfast just the two of them while waiting for his dad to wake up, because honestly the Sheriff had never been a morning person.

He sat there, wrapped up in his memories for a while, it might be minutes, it’s probably hours, he doesn’t really know. It’s not until he hears the sounds of someone walking towards him that he surfaces from the depths of his mind. He’s not sure what he’s expecting, he doesn’t usually see anyone here on Christmas day, but whatever it was it’s definitely not Derek Hale.

In some part of his mind Stiles is wondering what Derek is doing here, because he knows that the Hales have their own plot on the other side of the cemetery, Derek has no reason to be over this way. Mostly though Stiles is just kind of perversely relieved. Out of everyone in the pack, Derek might be the only one who understands how he feels. Plus, he thinks with a little guilt and a lot of sympathy, this is probably Derek’s first Christmas alone.

So he pats the spot next to him in silent invitation. It’s a credit to how close they’ve grown in recent months that Derek only hesitates for a moment before sitting down. But it’s nice, and Stiles enjoys the warmth of Derek along his side from where they’re just barely touching. 

They sit like that for a long time, silent save for the sound of their breathing, both glad not to be alone after all.

**Author's Note:**

> I just really wanted to write a sad Christmas fic, I can't even remember why now, but there ya have it. Also, I know I'm very late (or very early...) for the Christmas holidays but I just really wanted to do something with these abandoned fics, so I just kinda thought 'screw it'. 
> 
> Again, if you do write something for this, definitely let me know, either by listing this work as the inspiration if you post it on AO3, or by letting me know [on tumblr](http://almostsilent.tumblr.com/)


End file.
